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Published: 26 April 2019

Number of deaths increased from the previous year

According to Statistics Finland, a total of 54,527 persons died in 2018, which is 805 more than in 2017. Average life expectancy at birth was 78.9 years for boys and 84.3 years for girls in 2018. The life expectancy increased slightly for both boys and girls compared with 2017.

Age distribution at the time of death by sex in 2018

In 2018, men died, on average, at the age of 75.1 and women at 82.2. So, women died, on average, 7.1 years older than men. In young age groups, a majority of deaths occurred among young men but among persons aged 84 and older there were more women than men. The median age at death for men was 77.6 years and for women 85.6 years. The median describes the middle value, that is, one-half of all persons that died, died at a younger or older age than the median age at death.

Deaths in 1930 to 2018

In 2018, the average life expectancy at birth was 78.9 years for boys and 84.3 years for girls. For boys, the life expectancy increased by 0.2 years and for girls by 0.1 years compared with 2017. Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a person aged 0 would live on average, provided the rate of mortality remains unchanged.

The number of children dying at the age of under one year was 101, which is at the same level as in the three previous years. In 2018, the number of infant deaths per one thousand live-born children was 2.1, which is 0.1 per mil units higher than in the previous year. Even though the number of infant deaths remained almost unchanged, infant mortality rate is slightly higher than the three previous years due to a lower number of births.

Annual number of deaths by sex and deaths of 0-year-olds in 2008 to 2018

Year	Total	Men	Women	0-year-olds total
2008	49 094	24 457	24 637	157
2009	49 883	25 150	24 733	158
2010	50 887	25 539	25 348	140
2011	50 585	25 335	25 250	143
2012	51 707	25 623	26 084	141
2013	51 472	25 631	25 841	102
2014	52 186	25 748	26 438	124
2015	52 492	25 992	26 500	97
2016	53 923	26 922	27 001	100
2017	53 722	26 895	26 827	102
2018	54 527	27 184	27 343	101

Source: Deaths 2018. Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Katariina Heikkilä 029 551 3638, info@stat.fi

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Publication in pdf-format (257.5 kB)

Tables

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Figures

• Appendix figure 1. Deaths at the age of under one year by sex in 1990 to 2018 (26.4.2019)
• Appendix figure 2. Life expectancy at birth by sex in 1980 to 2018* (26.4.2019)

Quality descriptions

• Quality description, deaths 2018 (26.4.2019)

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Updated 26.4.2019